The Avengers Take a Sleeping Pill
by DemonicChica
Summary: After everything they've all been through the Avengers are bound to have sleeping issues and problems with their pasts. This is my take on how it would play out. Each and every chapter is separate from the others, like bunch of one-shots all smashed together. No slash. All relationships are cannon. Tiny bit of language.
1. Steve

**I don't own anything Marvel and yes I do realize this probably isn't how things happened to Steve but it sounded horrible so I went with it. Anyways enjoy and please review!**

_Water flooded into the plane washing over me, running over my face, stealing the air from my lungs. I was so tired and ready for what was to come. I was aware when I agreed to do this that I wouldn't live forever, and so what if I died a little earlier than I had planned? Bucky and Mom would be waiting for me. Maybe I could finally meet Dad too. As the pressure built I let my eyes drift closed and welcomed death._

_ Death never came. It had been days, I've watched the sun rise and set eight times through the ice that had frozen around my face. It hadn't quite frozen over my eyes leaving me unable to breath but forever seeing._

_ They would come, they had to come. Howard wouldn't just leave me like this, and Peggy. God, Peggy. She must be frantic, I've missed out date._

_ They aren't coming. God isn't going to save me. I'm never going to die. The plane crashed through the ice it was resting in, sending more water flooding in, flooding over me, blacking out the sky. Closing my eyes I prayed one last time to die, I didn't want to fight anymore._

My hands were clawing at my eyes and throat when I ripped myself out of the nightmare. It wasn't real, but it was. Running a hand through my hair, I sat in bed trying to get my breathing back under control before I hurt myself. Like that was possible. In the back of my mind I heard J.A.R.V.I.S. talking to me, trying to get me to respond. With a sigh I asked him to repeat whatever he had been saying.  
>"Sir? Do you require any assistance? Your breathing is quite irregular and your pulse is much higher than it should be. I would be lying if I said I wasn't concerned. This is becoming a regular occurrence, is it not?" So I wasn't doing as well as I had assumed in hiding these nightmares.<br>"No J.A.R.V.I.S. I'm okay, but thank you for asking. I'm just going to head to the gym."

Before getting out of bed I glanced at the clock I had sitting next to my bed and groaned. Three forty. It was three forty in the morning. Running a hand down my face I threw on some clothing, a pair of exercise shorts and a t-shirt, before heading down to the gym. Or starting to head to the gym. I had to get there first.

With shoes in hand I crept down the hallway. Tony and Bruce slept like the dead, well Tony did when he was sleeping, but Natasha and Clint were harder to sneak past. If someone sneezed they would wake up. Glad I had though to keep my shoes off I didn't lift my feet up off the floor and slowly crept to the elevator. Exhaling silently I reached out to hit the button that would signal the elevator to take me down but jumped back the doors swished open.

Tony was standing in the elevator, his clothing covered in grease, hair standing up at odd angles a coffee mug in one hand and a tablet in the other.  
>"J. remind me tomorrow to call Pep about that vacation to Tahiti." he didn't even realize I was there until he tried to leave and only then it was because he spilled his cold coffee down the front of his shirt.<p>

"Sir, it is tomorrow. Should I remind you later this morning instead?" J.A.R.V.I.S., bless him, knew how to handle Tony. "Perhaps after you've slept for a bit?" Tony just stood there looking at me with his head cocked to the left slightly, a look of confusion on his face.

"Yeah let's do that." More awkward staring.

Fed up with Tony being weird and staring at me, I reached out and forcibly shifted him over so I could get into the elevator.  
>"Look, I'm heading to the gym and unless you have something to do down there I recommend getting out of the elevator and heading to bed. Miss Potts is returning today around five and I'm sure she would be happier if you weren't sleep deprived." I had hoped that Tony was still a little angry at me for what had happened in battle, or at the very least angry that I'd moved him.<p>

No such luck. Instead of getting out he took a step back into the metal box and spun so he was facing me.

"I don't particularly have anything to do, but I'm sure I could find something." He hit the button and leaned back against the doors.

The ride down was silent, the only sound was Tony poking at his tablet occasionally and our mixed breathing. His even and controlled, mine still shaky from the nightmare. The doors opened with a muted swoosh revealing the gym, my favorite place in the Tower. Pushing past Tony I set up a punching bag and just went after it. If Tony wanted to stand there and tap at his tablet, well that's fine by me.

Three punching bags and a dislocated finger later I was still seeing ice freeze over my eyes. Still hearing the whoosh of water as it ran over my body. Still feeling absolutely and completely trapped. I was unbalanced, unsafe, and most definitely not fit for active duty. I'd tried to tell Director Fury, and yet here I was. Still leading the Avengers.

My hand was engulfed by sand, again. I drew my hand back and went to take down the bag; I felt kind of bad for destroying all these bags, but Tony could afford it and he never said anything thing. At least until now.  
>"I'm not an expert on coping mechanisms, but this isn't healthy Steve. I've been watching you." The surprise must have shown on my face because he continued, though he did put down the tablet and approached me before he continued. "We've all seen it. You're thinner now, and the bags under your eyes look like you've been punched by the Hulk. You're irritable and don't sleep for more than three hours a night.<p>

"You think we don't know but it's painfully obvious." His hand was resting gently on my upper arm. Warm and sold, he was warm and solid just like the rest of them. So why couldn't I just let it go?

Everything that was haunting me had passed, it was done and over with so why didn't it just leave me alone?

Pulling away from Tony I glared at him and started talking, about the past, the plane, my fears. Everything that I'd kept bottled up inside me since I'd woken up.  
>"So what if it's not the way to cope? You think you can help erase the memories of having ice freeze over your boy? Of wishing, hoping, praying that I'd die! Is it really that simple for you?" Embarrassingly enough tears were running down my face, obscuring my view of Tony but I could still make out his look of horror and disbelief.<p>

Turning I ran a hand down my face trying to call myself down a bit.  
>"It never did get put in the report then? I guess it wouldn't. When I told Fury I needed time off he laughed and pushed me into the Battle of New York. He knew. He knew that I wouldn't let my city get destroyed! Except this isn't my city anymore is it? It's fast and loud and not mine..."<p>

I'd tried to calm down but the way Tony was looking at me set me back over the edge. He didn't want to know, he didn't need to know. But he kept looking at me like I was crazy. Well he did ask for it.

"I was awake and feeling and stuck for all those years. The first week I thought I could just die. After that I spent a month, maybe it was more, thinking about Howard and Peggy and how they couldn't just leave me there. They couldn't. They were my friends. Then I started begging for death. No not out loud but in my mind because all that was left out of the ice were my eyes.

"I hadn't had a breath in over two months and I was still alive and conscious. By the time I closed my eyes I had given hope on ever being found. And then guess what! I'm found and dragged, kicking and screaming, into a time where I can't even make the remote work!" I spun back to Tony, except he wasn't alone, everyone was there. It didn't stop me though, no it fueled me. If they wanted to hear, to know well then that's what they're going to get! "Do you have any idea how infuriating it is to not be able to make the remote work? No! You Don't! Because it's always worked!" I spun around, giving them my tense back to look at. I shouldn't have shared that. They didn't need to know.

Natasha had slipped up to me and placed one of her hands on my shoulder, she felt bad for me. They all pitied me!

"Oh Steve..." She sounded so much like Peggy when she spoke like that, and Tony was so much like Howard, and Clint was nearly a carbon copy of Bucky. Bruce was so similar to Dr. Erskine. Thor, well he was just so Thor.

Everything inside me shattered as I crumpled to the floor sobbing. This was humiliating, but I couldn't stop. Everything was gone, everyone I loved was dead or dieing. As I cried I felt hands on me. One ran through my hair, my hand was held, soothing circles rubbed on my back, awkward patting on my thigh. They were all so close but so far away.

"Sleep Steve, it'll look better after you've slept." _Bruce_

"Take a breather Rodgers. It's all good here. We got this." _Clint_

"Rest Captain. We will need you battle soon enough." _Thor_

"I'll teach you how to use all the electronics in the world, after you look less like a teenage girl. Sleep, we'll all be here when you wake up." _Tony_

"Отдых Стив, мы нуждаемся в вас целым и здоровым. Мне нужно, вся и здоровым" _Natasha._

They cared. They all cared. About me, about the world, about each other. Natasha started singing a Russian lullaby, soothing my whirling mind and erasing the fear and pain. For now. As I drifted off to sleep I heard Clint's tenor start in with Natasha's alto and then gradually the rest of them started to hum along with them. I'd lost one of my families and gained another. This wasn't a fix for the long run, but for now it was enough.

**And here ya go! Bruce is next up, hope you like these and keep reading. Don't forget to **

**review! Oh! And Natasha said "Rest Steve, we need you whole and healthy. I need you whole and healthy." Bye now...**


	2. Bruce

**Wow it's been a long time. Sorry about that. Anyways I still lack the rights to Marvel. Enjoy And please review.**

_ I gave Betty a thumbs up, it was going to be fine. Perfect even. Or so I thought. She gave me a watery smile and then the pain started. Burning pain ripped through my body, my skin stretched as my body grew. My skin changed from the pale white it was to red as I fought against the pain to green. Then, nothing._

_ Fire. Bullets. Impacts. Anger. Green._

_ Yelling. Warnings. More bullets. More impacts. Anger, worse than before. Green._

_ Green._

_ Green._

_ GREEN!_

_ Sitting up in bed I looked around the room, expecting to find the same boring furniture that I always saw and was surprised to find Tony perching on the edge of my table in the lab we shared. Papers sat strewn around me, test tubes knocked over and blood on my hands. I looked down and saw more blood and torn clothing. Stumbling to my feet I walked over to Tony. He was fine, just sitting. In the corner, on my lab table, not blinking.  
>"Tony... Come on stop playing." Approaching him I lightly poked him in the chest. "Seriously Tony. Stop messing around!" I gave Tony's shoulder a tiny shop and he fell off the table. There was a white film over my eyes. Tony was dead. Backing away I ran to the hall, or was planning on it before I saw the rest of what was my team. Of my family.<em>

_ Steve was torn in two._

_ Natasha had a metal pole sticking out of her neck._

_ Thor was, well he was nothing more than a puddle of bones and tissue on the floor._

_ Clint was hanging half out of the ceiling. His face was gone._

_ Shuddering I turned away from them. I did this. I did this, killed my friends, killed my only second chance. _

_ Clutching a gun in my my hands, I looked at how the light reflected duly off the metal. I'd tried once before and it didn't work. Maybe if I chose a more direct place. Maybe the temple instead of the back of my head? Placing the gun up against my right temple I closed my eyes. Took one last look around the room, absorbing the devastation I saw. And pulled trigger._

_ GREEN!_

Sitting up in bed I looked around. It had to be a dream. It HAD to be. Throwing the blanket off my lap I stood up and walked out to the common space. We'd just finished a mission, it had been a bad one. Children died, people hurt, and the bad guys nearly won. I just needed to see that everyone was okay. That Tony's neck wasn't broken, and Natasha didn't have a new creative and deadly piercing. That Steve was whole and Clint had a face. I just needed to see that they were fine. Then I could go back to sleep.

The TV room, which had more than just a TV but still, was empty. Except for the pair of spies carefully nursing their wounds. Neither of them like having doctors poke a prod at their injuries and found it better to nurse them at home.

"Hey Doc. You feeling okay?" Clint sitting on the couch had the perfect view of me while he got a nasty burn washed and bandaged. That was my fault too, but he still had a face.

"I uh-" Natasha looked up and for a moment in time the blood on her neck looked like it was fresh. Like there was a gaping hole in her neck. Like she was dead. But with a blink of my eyes I saw that it was only dried blood that had trickled down from the gash in her forehead.

"Bruce? You're looking kinda... green?" Taking a deep breath I nodded and gave them a brief, pained smile.

"Everything's fine. I was just looking for Tony, he's probably in my lab. Don't know why I came here." Thankfully both spies accepted my excuse and let me leave without too much hassle.

I ran into Thor in halls, and he wasn't a puddle resembling the mystery meat my high school used to serve. Greeting him moved on to the gym hoping to find Steve in there. He was either in the gym or trying to get Tony to teach him how to used his phone or something.

Peering into the room I held my breath and moved on. Steve wasn't in the gym.

My steps were shaky and I had to use the walls to steady myself which, if I were in a better mood, would have made me laugh. I'd started out walking just fine, sure my heart beat had been a little high and maybe I was a bit green, but I could walk just fine. Shaking my head in confusion, I slipped into the elevator and poked the button for the basement. It used to be shiny, new and untouched, but my and Tony's experiments weren't always clean and we'd rarely remember to wash up leaving the button stained a somewhat greasy. Most people preferred asking J.A.R.V.I.S. to take them down. I did too, but today I just wanted to feel the greasy coating on the button.

The hall, same as it had always been, was flashing painfully between reality and my dream. It went from pristine to being a wreck and the back again. Trailing a hand along the wall I tried to focus on the smooth surface, tried to keep myself grounded in present time. But my mind would have no such thing. I'd seen too much destruction, to many things that I'd destroyed.

I'd hoped to have a bit of time to gather myself before entering the lab but J.A.R.V.I.S. didn't know that I was trying to disprove a dream that was all too familiar, and the doors opened automatically. Swallowing thickly I stepped into the war zone that had become that lab. It was common for it to be messy, disastrous even, but it had never been this bad. Stepping further into the room I realized it was just a bunch of paper and electronic holograms that Tony had projected. Sometimes for a doctor I can be really stupid. My footsteps would have echoed on the floor except Tony had his music blasting. Oddly enough the mess and the music and the disaster that was the lab calmed me.

Tony was fine, breathing and arguing with Steve over something small. Most likely if they needed twenty different kinds of cereal in the Tower. Tony argued if he was going to eat it would be cereal and he wanted a variety. Steve just found it weird and wasteful.

Seeing that my friends were safe, that I wasn't going to be hunted down by everyone on Earth and more, I relaxed and moved on to my corner of the lab. When I sat down I'd failed to notice the whoopee cushion beneath me and, despite my best efforts, burst out laughing. It was immature and stupid, but it was just what I needed really.  
>"Really Tony? You'd couldn't come up with something better, like say... replacing all your music with country?" A smile worked its way onto my face as Tony spun around to look at me.<p>

"You wouldn't-" He was cut off as She thinks my Tractors Sexy Started playing in place of what he usually played.

**Shorter than I'd intended but here all the same. Please review and keep reading? I promise to update more often now.**


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